Fantasy Art

Fantasy and folklore have always run underneath the other work here, like a second channel of water under the same ground. The botanical studies have an older, more archaic quality to them than pure scientific illustration. The crocheted figures include creatures that don't exist. The colour choices in the blankets and shawls lean darker and more atmospheric than the mainstream craft palette. None of this is accidental.

Watercolour and ink illustrations

The illustrative work in this category sits between the botanical studies and something altogether less grounded. Foxes with too-knowing eyes. Hares at angles that feel ceremonial. Plants that flower in the wrong season, at the wrong time of night. The source material is UK and Irish folklore mostly — the corpus is large and strange and has been sitting in the visual background of this studio for a long time.

These illustrations are made in watercolour with ink linework, on the same Arches cold-pressed paper as the botanical and portrait work. They take longer than the observational studies because the composition has to be invented rather than observed, and getting the balance right between legible and strange takes time. The finished pieces tend to be A4 or A5.

Recent pieces in this vein include:

• The Wren King — ink and watercolour, A4. A wren at the centre of a circular composition of oak leaves and bare winter branches. Printed in an edition of 20.
• Hare and Moon — A5, watercolour. Based on the old moon-hare association in British folklore. Still available.
• Fox at the Gate — A4, ink wash and watercolour. A fox sitting very still in front of a field gate, early morning. Ambiguous whether it's really a fox. Edition of 15.
• The Botanist's Room — A3, the largest in this range. A room full of impossible plants, all botanically rendered but none quite real. Sold. Prints available.

Fantasy in the textile work

The crochet and sewing side of the studio has its own fantasy thread, though it's quieter. Amigurumi figures that are clearly not any real animal — a small dragon in forest green and gold, a creature that is half-owl and half-something-else, a set of mushroom figures in colours that mushrooms don't come in. These don't get listed formally; they get made when the impulse is there and they find homes through word of mouth.

The blanket and shawl work occasionally moves in this direction too. A ripple blanket in midnight blue, deep teal, and silver that took its palette from a particular image of the sea at night. A granny-square afghan in the colours of the Fairy Glen in autumn. These are observations, not marketing — the pieces were made with specific places and feelings in mind, and the names are mostly private shorthand rather than listed titles.

Photography with an edge

Some of the photography in the longer catalogue crosses into a register that isn't purely documentary. Dawn on the river when the mist sits a certain way. A heron standing absolutely still in very low light. The swans at dusk in February, when the sky is doing something implausible. These photographs aren't staged, but they have a quality that is hard to describe without reaching for the word atmospheric, which is accurate if vague.

A handful of these are available as prints. They sit in the same archival print range as the rest of the photography work — small editions, Hahnemuhle paper, signed. If you've seen one on social media or a third-party site and want to trace it back to its source, email is the right route.

Commissions in this space

Illustration commissions that fall into the fantasy or folklore category are taken on a case-by-case basis. The work takes longer and requires a clearer brief than a pet portrait or a botanical study, and not every commission request is the right fit. If you have a specific piece in mind — a particular creature, a specific folk tale, a scene you want rendered in this particular style — send a detailed description and I'll tell you honestly whether it's something the studio can do well.

All commissions are on the commissions page. The full portfolio is in the gallery. Recent completed work is under projects. Background on the studio is on the about page.